Kona Stories Offers January ‘Words and Wine’

Join local authors for the monthly Words and Wine Event hosted by Kona Stories Book Shop. This event is free to the public and offers a chance for you to meet and greet some of Hawai‘i’s favorite authors and artists while you enjoy complimentary pūpū and wine. January’s featured authors are—Kari Bovée and Uma Ojeda and Illustrator Andrea Dezso.

Kari Bovée

Kari Bovée. Courtesy photo.

Empowered women in history, horses, unconventional characters, and real-life historical events fill the pages of Bovée’s articles and historical mystery musings and manuscripts. She is an
award-winning writer: She was honored as a finalist in the Romantic Suspense category of the 2012 LERA Rebecca contest, the 2014 NTRWA Great Expectations contest, and the RWA 2016
Daphne du Maurier contest for her unpublished manuscript Grace in the Wings. She was also honored as a finalist in the NHRWA Lone Star Writer’s contest in 2012 with the unpublished
manuscript of the first book in her Annie Oakley series, Girl with a Gun. Bovée has worked as a technical writer for a Fortune 500 Company, has written non-fiction for magazines and newsletters, and has worked in the education field as a teacher of literature, reading, and drama. She and her husband, Kevin, split their time between their horse property in the beautiful Land of Enchantment, New Mexico, and their condo on the sunny shores of Kailua-Kona, Hawai‘i.

Girl with a Gun – An Annie Oakley Mystery

Fifteen-year-old Annie Oakley is the sole supporter of her widowed mother and two siblings. An expert markswoman and independent spirit, she hunts game to sell to the local mercantile to make ends meet instead of accepting a marriage proposal that could solve all her problems. After a stunning performance in a shooting contest against the handsome and famous sharpshooter Frank Butler, Annie is offered a position in the renowned Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show. Finally, she has a chance to save the nearly foreclosed family farm and make her dreams come true. But then her Indian assistant is found dead in her tent, and Annie is dubious when the local coroner claims the death was due to natural causes. When another innocent is murdered, Annie begins to fear the deaths are related to her. And to make matters worse, her prized horse, Buck, a major part of her act, is stolen.

Annie soon discovers that the solution to her problems lies buried in a padlocked Civil War trunk belonging to the show’s manager, Derence LeFleur. And so, with the help of a sassy, blue- blooded reporter, Annie sets out to find her horse, solve the murders, and clear her name.

Uma Ojeda

Uma Ojeda. Courtesy photo.

Ojeda is the mother of two grown sons, a wild dolphin/ocean swimmer, forest hiker and lover of life. She currently resides in Kailua Kona, Hawaii. Love Guru Uma credits Hawai‘i with making almost all of her dreams come true. She has traveled and lived in China & the Philippines, where she & her husband played music weekly at a Cuban restaurant. They also vacationed in India and Bali. Only recently did she learn how to open her heart and evolve into a faithful, happy, fulfilled & committed wife. She adores yoga, Zumba, dancing, singing and playing the ukulele.

The adventure love story as detailed in Love is Crazy Satisfying – More Lessons in Love: Creating your own Happy Ever After, is based on true life events. Uma’s book journey and consequent book series, talks, concerts and upcoming PlayShops stemmed from real life events. They all occurred and almost drove her insane!

Love Guru Ojeda focuses daily on many of the self-help advice she gives others. One lessons is appreciation: as she truly appreciates her mother for leading the way towards an interest in self-help and life improvement. Spending most of her life in the New Age mecca of Sedona, Arizona didn’t hurt either. Each chapter of Love is Crazy Satisfying ends with a kernel of truth to help readers find their own happy ever after. The book follows with hands-on activities to improve your life right now.

Love is Crazy Satisfying

This crazy tale takes you from meeting the main character’s  husband, living arrangements with her two teen sons, planning and getting married at the Hilton in Waikoloa, to traveling to & living in Shenzhen, China; Sedona, Arizona; Eureka, California and the Philippines. She also shares vacation time in India and Bali, with the loud, honking auto rickshaws, where she thought she might die every time she entered one to the monkey forest in Ubud. Many of the friends made and lessons learned are told with humor and candor, while touching on the kernels of truth and self-help tips which help the author live a happy and satisfied life today.

Number two in the Love is Crazy book series, continues where book one left readers. The crazy tale takes you from meeting her husband, living in Hawaii, traveling to & living in Shenzhen, China and vacationing in India. Many of the friends made and lessons learned are told with humor and candor, while touching on the kernels of truth and self-help tips which help the author live a happy and satisfied life today.

Andrea Dezsö – Illustrator

Andrea Dezsö. Courtesy photo.

Dezsô is a visual artist who works across a broad range of media including drawing, painting, artist’s books, embroidery, cut paper, animation, sculpture, site-specific installation and public art. Dezsö’s permanent public art has been installed in three New York City subway stations, at the United States Embassy in Bucharest, Romania and at CUNY BMCC Fiterman Hall in Lower Manhattan. Community Garden, Dezsö’s mosaic in the New York City subway was recognized as Best American Public Art in 2007 by Americans for the Arts.

Dezsö exhibits in museums and galleries around the world and teaches widely.  She currently serves as Professor of Art at Hampshire College in Amherst, MA and maintains studios in NYC and in Western Massachusetts.

When Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm published their Children’s and Household Tales in 1812, followed by a second volume in 1815, they had no idea that such stories as “Rapunzel,” “Hansel and Gretel,” and “Cinderella” would become the most celebrated in the world. Yet few people today are familiar with the majority of tales from the two early volumes, since in the next four decades the Grimms would publish six other editions, each extensively revised in content and style. For the very first time, The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm makes available in English all 156 stories from the 1812 and 1815 editions. These narrative gems, newly translated and brought together in one beautiful book, are accompanied by sumptuous new illustrations from award-winning artist Andrea Dezso.

From “The Frog King” to “The Golden Key,” wondrous worlds unfold–heroes and heroines are rewarded, weaker animals triumph over the strong, and simple bumpkins prove themselves not so simple after all. Esteemed fairy tale scholar Jack Zipes offers accessible translations that retain the spare description and engaging storytelling style of the originals. Indeed, this is what makes the tales from the 1812 and 1815 editions unique–they reflect diverse voices, rooted in oral traditions, that are absent from the Grimms’ later, more embellished collections of tales. Zipes’s introduction gives important historical context, and the book includes the Grimms’ prefaces and notes.

A delight to read, The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm presents these peerless stories to a whole new generation of readers.

This event starts at 6 p.m. with an informal meet and greet merging into a more formal book
presentation from each author and concluding around 8 p.m after a question and answer session. Dress is casual aloha wear. Kona Stories is located in the Keauhou Shopping Center, for more information call Brenda or Joy at (808) 324-0350.